Opening on Wednesday 17th, 77, as it is now known, will move away from its banging nightclub history, and become a space that’s more of neighbourhood bar with a big emphasis on food (though you’ll be able to eat and drink late into the night).
“I think most people are weirded out by the thought of eating in here,” joked Wirth.
True to their form with venues like The Forresters and The Oxford Tavern, food and drink will go hand in hand, though they’re moving away from the pub vibe.
“The drinks are Eastern Euro flavour-based — weird, lesser known herbals, Polish liqueurs, Goldwasser and absinthe Old Fashioneds — and not too strict, either, and it’s the same with the food,” said Wirth. “The food is classic bar menu, with a little bit of an Eastern Euro spin. We’re doing fresh-baked pretzels with molten cheese dip, deep fried garlic.It’s a bit like Eastern Euro 1970’s,” he said.
The bar is the feature of the space, and it curves throughout the room in a way that encourages conversation.
“We put in this big boobie-shaped bar, there’ll be 30 seats at the bar, all locked in stools,” said Wirth.
There’ll also be a DJ booth, a pool table, and booth seating down the far wall.
They hit upon an Eastern European vibe because they were looking to do something different to what they had in the past, said Delany.
“We definitely thought that we’d done Americana, and I guess the whole city — the whole of Australia has probably,” he said. “And we weren’t reaching for something just for the sake of it, but when we thought about it there’s quite a few interesting little pathways to go down with drinks and stuff like that.”
The inspiration also draws on their fondness for Krautrock. “[It’s] that kind of pre-dance sort of sound, where it was an inspiration to electronic music but it’s before it happened,” said Delany.
“It kind of seems like it would be a natural progression of the venue rather than going, hey, now it’s a Mexican bar,” said Wirth. “It just made sense with what was here.”
And it’s also a little homage to the famous — infamous? — Kings Cross bar, Barons, which closed its doors nearly ten years ago.
“We really loved that bar Baron’s,” said Wirth. “Even though it was only like weird old dudes — it had that kind of 50 year old Austrian guy behind the bar pouring you a Campari with a shaky hand from a bottle with no nip pourer on it — we really loved that bar and wanted to do something in the spirit of that.”
We think that the revamped 77 could very well be the bar where a whole new raft of stories are made.
77 is located at 77 William Street, Darlinghurst (entry via the rear lane), and opens on Wednesday 17 February.